Groans, if not yawns, might have been elicited when Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures recently announced that the company is developing a stage adaptation of the 1975 Al Pacino film, “Dog Day Afternoon.” Yet another play based on a film classic? But then this name was dropped: Stephen Adly Guirgis. The Pulitzer-prize winning playwright of “Between Riverside and Crazy” will be doing the adaptation and that alone makes this venture noteworthy.Guirgis won last year’s Pulitzer Prize for Drama with the off-Broadway production of “Between Riverside and Crazy.” The black comedy about a retired New York City cop and his house of misfits won so many other honors that it’s something of a surprise that it hasn’t yet received a Broadway transfer. After all, Guirgis’s 2011 Broadway debut, “Motherfucker with a Hat,” starring Chris Rock and Bobby Cannavale, was a Tony-nominated hit.At any rate, the playwright is the right person to bring his subversive, street-wise style to the real-life 1972 story of Sonny Wortzik, who attempted to rob a Gravesend, Brooklyn bank in order to pay for his male lover’s sex-change operation. Things quickly spiraled out of the control as hostages were taken and crowds and the media descended to offer an audience for Sonny’s soap opera. Few who have seen Sidney Lumet’s Oscar-winning film about the eccentric, quintessentially New York City episode, can forget Pacino’s rebel cries of “Attica! Attica!” It wouldn’t be surprising if Cannavale won the role of the scene-stealing Sonny. He’s perfect for it. The theatrical division of Warner Bros. is on something of a roll. They could boast that the two top non-musical earners of last week on Broadway were theirs: “Misery,” starring Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf, and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” In addition, they are gearing up for the transfer to New York of their hit London musical, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” based on the popular Roald Dahl novel.Sam Mendes, who directed the London production, has abdicated his duties for this production although he remains as producer. Taking over will be Jack O’Brien, who previously collaborated on the musical “Hairspray” with Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the songwriters of “Charlie.” Joshua Bergasse (“Gigi,” “On the Town”) has also taken over the choreography from Peter Darling, who is working on the new musical, “Groundhog Day.”
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